Itinerant Air-Cooled

So after the infamous jack collapse from last years Itinerary visit I began to notice additional vibrations in the engine. I started it yesterday, 65 degrees beautiful day, and noted a rattle that I eventually located between the tow bracket and the engine exhaust. I loosened the carrier bolts to see if I could drop the engine ever so slightly, didn't happen. Two questions:

1. Do I need to loosen the engine mounting bolts at the bell housing in addition to the carrier bolts to get slight movement at the rear of the engine?

2. Is it possible that the jack incident actually caused damage at the rear engine rubber mounts? Fatboy took a pretty big hit at the heat exchanger although we noted no visual damage.

wdollie6 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:18 am

So after the infamous jack collapse from last years Itinerary visit I began to notice additional vibrations in the engine. I started it yesterday, 65 degrees beautiful day, and noted a rattle that I eventually located between the tow bracket and the engine exhaust. I loosened the carrier bolts to see if I could drop the engine ever so slightly, didn't happen. Two questions:

1. Do I need to loosen the engine mounting bolts at the bell housing in addition to the carrier bolts to get slight movement at the rear of the engine?

2. Is it possible that the jack incident actually caused damage at the rear engine rubber mounts? Fatboy took a pretty big hit at the heat exchanger although we noted no visual damage.

Can you describe specifically where the contact is? The tow bracket assumes that you have a left exit exhaust in 1972. Do you have two tow eyes, one on each bracket? If not, is the rightside contacting your later exhaust pipe that exits on the right?

You can move the engine down if you loosen the nose cone *nuts* and the engine carrier bolts, and jostle the engine down at the rear. Retighten all. Try not to go there just yet. Where is the actual contact?
Colin

I'll take a picture this evening so that you can see it. Passenger side tow hook interference with muffler, had this issue when I first put it together but ground it out slightly, problem disappeared until last fall and startup this year.

wdollie6 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:48 pm

I'll take a picture this evening so that you can see it. Passenger side tow hook interference with muffler, had this issue when I first put it together but ground it out slightly, problem disappeared until last fall and startup this year.

They got rid of the passenger side hook from 1974 onwards, IIRC. If you have a right exit exhaust, well, there is the issue. If it was a close clearance to begin with, then yes, a jack drop may have "adjusted" things.
Colin

(ask us about how to adjust your headlamps with just a 65 mph impact with a deer ...)

Big hammer?

Wait is that Naranja Westy? Sorry to see that happen. I have missed deer with Fatboy by inches, lucky... so far. Hopefully the damage can be repaired but that looks more like the front of my Fasty, wrinkles are tough to get out, definitely need a professional.

Fatboy has a passenger side exit muffler because it was the only one of reasonable quality I could find. The other issue is that the engine vibration is much more prominent/noticeable than it was previously, leading to the question about the rear engine mount. I might just remove the tow hook to eliminate the issue but will have to monitor the vibration to see if it worsens. By the way not an engine tuning issue as it is running great.

So after some rough running with Fatboy, dieseling after turning key off, what felt like a slight skip and poor power, I decided to dig in and find the cause. At one point on the road I had checked all wires to chokes, cut-offs and CIS to see if one had fallen off or was loose, no dice, or so I thought. Yesterday when I put the bus up on my new scissors lift (wife's b'day present to me), I pulled all wires to check for broken terminals, etc. Found that the passenger side cut-off wire was in place but the connector (new one that I had put on a few years ago) was extremely loose on the spade, replaced it and after a test drive problem solved.

While I had the lift setup I also changed the oil (no debris to be seen), adjusted the valves and points. Points were just slightly tight, valves were as follows:

#1 - Both valves perfect
#2 Exhaust - Slightly tight but still had gap, adjusted to match #1
#3 Exhaust - Slightly tight " " " "
#4 Intake and Exhaust - Slightly tight, still had gap.

The rebuilt engine now has just over 6000 miles on it over 5 years. Other than the recent wire malfunction still running great. Need to put some miles on this machine...

Also for some reason my camper top lifted off the bus a couple of inches in the front (in 72 luggage rack in rear). I popped it lightly a couple of times with my hand and it dropped it back into place, apparently it had somehow moved up and over the front bracket, a head scratcher for sure, will need to keep my eye on it. I recently had lifted it up so the grandgirls, 4 of them under five, could "play" in there (closely supervised by me of course) wondering if it shifted the front for some strange reason.

Oh well, all is good now, as I said will monitor.

Oh forgot to mention, front transmission/cone seal weep is back, except it is now beyond a weep! I assume this means another engine & transaxle pull? Can't be fixed in situ, correct?

Wonder if the pull will be easier using my new scissors lift, carefully of course?

Also noted that I still have my little leak at the differential and at my steering box (apparently new seal didn't solve the problem). If I replace the gear oil with grease in the steering box any specific brand to use?